Monday, October 18, 2010

A Thrilla of a Villa

Christine, a kind reader who divides her time between Milan and her husband's rice farm in the province of Pavia, Northern Italy (isn't that the life!), sent me a link to an auction house that was selling off the contents of Villa CoardidiCarpenetoMazza, an old patrician estate in Genestrello . Christine had the opportunity to visit the villa during the sale, and she said that what captivated her was the understated decoration of the house. The architecture is pretty stunning, but when you look at the furnishings, they're actually fairly quiet. After viewing the photos, I completely agree with Christine. Although, what also captivates me are all of the fabulous floors throughout the house. I'd love to replicate the look in my home, but I'm guessing that Lumber Liquidators won't be much help. Anyway, happy Monday to you.

14 comments:

How lovely! I adore northern Italy, although I am not familiar with this area in particular. Most Milanese I know go to either the coast (southeast of Genoa) or to the lakes to the north. I'm sure Pavia is beautiful also - is there a part of Italy that isn't? As for the villa - stunning. And agree - the floors, (I particularly love the ones in the first 2 shots) are fabulous. How luxurious to live like this!

I agree about the beauty of the floors and the furniture - lovely place. Floors, as are ceilings, nowadays are mostly unregarded. In the 1980s there was a fashion for painting wooden floors to resemble inlaid stone floors - anything, I suppose to make the tedious wooden strip floor interesting.

Adam, of course, frequently tied the design of the floor or carpet to that of the ceiling but that was a different time. The history of floors is a long and interesting one - think of the Cosmati floors - but seems to have stalled in a time when "hardwoods" are seemingly the only alternative to wall-to-wall broadloom.

As to ceilings: sad, really, when you think that most are just painted not to be noticed or strewn with can lights.

I advise your readers that scale is of utmost importance. I once did a bathroom floor in the black & white alternating chevrons like the first floor image. But the client and the decorator, a big name fashion designer and a big name pain in the everywhere, insisted on reducing the scale to what was thought to suit the size of the room. Unfortunately, the result was a dizzying optical headache that is now covered by a large silk rug.

I think you could do similar things to the floors with Paint -and the herringbone like the final image is easy to achieve with wood -even from lumber liquidators! Remember the beautiful painted floors seen recently in Nick Olson's apartment? fantastic!What really has me though on this house is that front facade -wow!